A member of the social media team of the Assam Police told The Indian Express that they received a mail first and then a message was posted on the platform.

Assam Police was in for the rude shock after it joined Mastodon Social and posted regarding child and women safety on the occasion of Children’s Day.

Mastodon Social, the social media platform which has gained popularity in India recently, on November 14 suspended an account of the Assam Police reportedly citing that “cops are not welcome”.

The Assam Police, whose witty presence on platforms like Twitter and Instagram has been much appreciated previously, was in for the rude shock after it joined the platform and posted regarding child and women safety on the occasion of Children’s Day.

A member of the social media team of the Assam Police told The Indian Express that they received a mail first and then a message was posted on the platform.

“One of the moderators of Mastodon Social informed that our account has been suspended following reports from users who didn’t feel “safe” with our presence and that they will not “welcome cops on this instance”. Apparently, a public service agency reaching out to the Mastodon community with a cyber safety message for children broke Mastodon’s code of conduct,” the member said.

The message posted by the account “mod [5]” said, “The account of the Assam Police has been suspended from this instance. We decided that we will not welcome cops on this instance, and we encourage the rest of the fediverse to do the same. Following multiple reports, we decided that it’s more important that our community feels safe and in security, than to be a platform for official communication.”

The social media official quoted above added, “Probably the moderators did not get the context of our work. Our decision to join Mastodon Social was to extend our positive and constructive dialogue with all stakeholders of society. The way our account was suspended, has left us bewildered and makes us wonder about the intentions of the space. The Mastodon moderators could possibly have looked at our work on various platforms before pulling the plug.”

“In continuation of our efforts to create engage positively and mobilize communities, we joined Mastodon Social on 14th November and posted a toot highlighting the importance of Cyber Safety. However, much to our dismay, within a few hours, our account was suspended on stated grounds that are beyond any rational or logical reasoning,” he added.